Winter has fully descended in this calendar page for December. Against a snowy landscape, a peasant is kneeling atop a pig that he has just slaughtered, bracing himself for the arduous task ahead. Beside him crouches a woman, holding out a pan to catch the pig's blood. Behind them a distant figure is crossing a bridge over a frozen river, while to the left two women are at work in an open-sided building. The only hint of welcome warmth comes from the fire blazing in the hearth.

December, naturally enough, includes a number of major feast days - so many, in fact, that the illuminators of this manuscript have had to be creative in order to include them all. On the lower right, beneath a depiction of the Nativity of Christ for Christmas, are four roundels containing scenes commemorating St Stephen, St John, the Holy Innocents, and St Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury (for more on images of St Thomas, see our post Erasing Becket).

Detail of a bas-de-page scene of peasants slaughtering
a pig and working in a snowy landscape, Add MS 35313, f. 7r
More about the Rothschild Hours here